''The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics'' (commonly referred to as ''The Medical Letter'') is a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

biweekly

medical journal A medical journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that communicates medical information to physicians, other health professionals. Journals that cover many medical specialties are sometimes called general medical journals. History The first ...

providing evaluations of

pharmaceutical drug A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

s. It is published in English, French, and Italian. The journal is abstracted and indexed in

Index medicus ''Index Medicus'' (''IM'') is a curated subset of MEDLINE, which is a bibliographic database of life science and biomedical science information, principally scientific journal articles. From 1879 to 2004, ''Index Medicus'' was a comprehensive b ...

MEDLINE MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, or MEDLARS Online) is a bibliographic database of life sciences and biomedical information. It includes bibliographic information for articles from academic journals covering medic ...

PubMed PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health maintain the ...

. An offshoot, ''Treatment Guidelines from the Medical Letter'' () was published from 2002-2014, when it was integrated into this journal.

Editorial process

Articles for ''The Medical Letter'' are drafted by either an editor or external consultant using both published and available unpublished studies that are reviewed for methodological rigor with special attention to the results of

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...

s. A preliminary draft is circulated to every member of the advisory board and 10-20 other investigators with relevant clinical or experimental experience with the article's topic. Drafts are also provided to the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

and

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

and to all first authors of articles cited in the text. The evaluation of each drug includes a discussion of its efficacy, side effects, and a comparison with older, more established agents. The final version of the paper includes comments from the reviewers and is checked and edited for accuracy and readability.

Publisher

The journal is published by The Medical Letter, Inc., a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

founded in 1958 by

Arthur Kallet Arthur Kallet (December 15, 1902February 24, 1972) was an American consumer advocate. Career An engineer, Kallet co-authored a 1933 book entitled '' 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics'' with fellow engineer ...

and Harold Aaron. It is independent of the pharmaceutical industry, supported by subscriptions, accepts no advertising, and has had a strict policy in place that in order to retain its objectivity, no reprints will be sold to the pharmaceutical industry.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics Publications established in 1959 Pharmacology journals Multilingual journals English-language journals French-language journals Italian-language journals Biweekly journals